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Post-Challenge Reflection - March 2nd, 2020

I can now say that I successfully finished the Welfare Food Challenge. While these past seven days have been hard, they taught me some much about myself and my choices. While I thought that today would consist of me treating myself with coffees and chocolate bars, that was not the case. I had a fairly standard breakfast, a bagel, a bowl of strawberries and a coffee (which was amazing) and my lunch was a greek salad with spinach. As I ate my meals today I was already more conscious about what I actually needed to eat and what I just wanted to eat. Just beneath this paragraph is a picture of my breakfast today.

Tonight my boyfriend and I went out for dinner as a celebration of finishing the challenge (he is just as relieved as I am). However, I did recognize that the portion of food I was eating was definitely more than I need to eat and I ended up bringing half of my food home for lunch tomorrow

Throughout this challenge I have learned so much about nutrition, the needs of my own body, and how hunger can impact my daily life. 

1. Food is apart of your social life whether you believe it or not. I had never truly noticed that whenever my family comes down to visit, we always go for dinner. However, in learning that I was doing this challenge, my parents decided not to come down for dinner. Family dinners have been a tradition in my family for as long as I can remember and I carry that idea of food being a social thing with me in my daily life. I love to share a bite to eat with my friends and I find that food really brings out the best in people. This week I really missed cooking with my roommates and spending time in the kitchen. I felt like I spent way more time in my room because I did not want to have to smell and see my roommates cook great meals. Furthermore, there are many benefits to eating with others such as: regular shared mealtimes provide a sense of regularity to peoples lives, sharing meals allow opportunity for people to learn and listen, and eating at a table with others make individuals eat in upright chairs which improves digestion (Mental Health Foundation, 2020)

2. Without the proper nutrients it is hard to regulate your emotions. Throughout the week it was like I was on an emotional roller coaster. I went from being happy and full of energy one day, to being super tired and emotional the next. As I mentioned in a previous post, serotonin is an important neurotransmitter that helps regulate mood and appetite and without out, you can expect so fluctuation in your emotions (Dallas, 2011). Furthermore, having low blood sugar can lead to fatigue, weakness, and the feeling of being frustrated, all of which are tied to being hungry (Dallas, 2011). I have discovered this week the importance of giving my body the nutrients it needs to function and what happens if I don't. I became dizzy some days, I was forgetful others, and sometimes I even broke down crying. 

3. I eat way more food than my body requires in a day. Prior to this week I would have never though that I was overeating. However, this week I was shocked to see that I was not very hungry. I anticipated that I would be starving, but I actually had enough food to keep me going throughout the days. Due to this, I have now purchased small containers for my lunches and leftovers because I do not need to have such portion sizes. 

4. This challenge takes a lot of self-control. This challenge really tested my patience and my ability to commit to this 18$ grocery bill. While I sticked to the challenge, I constantly thought about how I could cheat if I wanted to. This was something that stuck with me through the challenge because whenever I felt the slightest urge for a treat, I would think “well no one would have to know if you did.” I almost found it comforting being able to know that if I needed to, I had food in my pantry to eat or an extra dollar to spend in a vending machine. Every time I quickly snapped myself out of that thinking because a welfare recipient does not have that luxury. They do not get to cheat if they want to, they have to stick to the “challenge” whether they want to or not. 

5. Hunger can be psychological. Throughout this week I found that I did have enough food to last me the full seven days, meaning I had three meals a day. While this was the case, I honestly believe that I could make myself hungry by thinking about all the food I was missing out on even though I just ate. This is a very interesting phenomena that I had never experience before.

6. I am very lucky. The most important thing this week had taught me is that I am very lucky to have a roof over my head, food in my fridge to eat, and the support of my friends and family. I have a new found appreciation for the life I have. This challenge forced me to realize that my “problems” are really small in the big scheme of things. 

In learning all of these things and experiencing a week in a welfare recipients shoes, I wanted to provide some resources below for anyone who may need them. 

Red Deer Food Bank Society (403-346-1505) provides a food hamper to those in need, all you have to do is call in or visit their website for more information. The website is as follows https://reddeerfoodbank.com/need-help%3F

The Mustard Seed has services in Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer, Medicine Hat and Kamloops. In Red Deer, the Mustard Seed provides meals on Mondays from 5-7 p.m and has many other services including bible study, prayer meetings, and drop-in hours. The program here in Red Deer also provides almost 350 meals to low-income children at school so that they can have healthy and nutritious lunches. The website is https://theseed.ca/services-red-deer/

Potter’s Hands Soup Kitchen is a local organization in Red Deer that serves breakfast on Monday through Saturday, lunch on Monday’s, and dinner on Tuesdays. They can also help find local low income housing for family. To view the website for more information go to http://pottershandsministries.org. 

In being from a small town I wanted to include some rural communities in Alberta that all have a food bank in them for those who need it. People in these communities may not have access to accommodations that they have in the bigger cities. Some of the communities include: Sylvan Lake, Whitecourt, Olds, Killam, Brooks, Cochrane, and the list goes on and on. From my experience growing up in a small town, many local churches and community centres all have a food bank which is a great resource of the less fortunate to access.

If you have time or even just a small amount of money or food to donate to these wonderful places above, all of their websites have tons of information on how anyone can help out. 

Overall, this challenge has allowed me to truly understand just how welfare recipients live everyday. I am so grateful for the life I have, but I am even more grateful for the opportunities I have every day to help people less fortunate than myself.

To view the article about the benefits of eating with others from the Mental Health Foundation (2020): https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/a-to-z/m/mealtimes-and-mental-health

To look at the website Research Reveals Why Hungry People Get Cranky: https://www.everydayhealth.com/emotional-health/0916/research-reveals-why-hungry-people-get-cranky.aspx

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Day 7 - March 1st, 2020

DAY SEVEN IS FINALLY UPON US! Today I woke up feeling motivated and ready to finish the challenge. I am feeling very successful in doing the challenge, I learned so much about myself and how welfare recipients live. I only have limited knowledge and experience in how these individuals live on a daily basis, but my eyes have been opened. Through the research I have done this week and have included in each of my posts I have learned more about health eating as well. 

BREAKFAST - 10:00

I apologize again, I was terrible at taking pictures of my food (I cannot wait to just make my meals or snacks and just get to eat it). Today I had my last two eggs and two pieces of toast. I have to say, I am quite relieved to not have to eat this for breakfast for a while. Overall, I am really missing out of my morning coffee. I feel exhausted and tired with this whole challenge, not because I am hungry, but because I hate thinking about what I have to eat so much. 

LUNCH - 13:30

Again, I am happy to not have to eat pasta for a while. Pasta used to be one of my favourite foods until this week. 

DINNER - 19:00

My dinner today was actually too much for me and for the first time this week I did not finish it. I felt almost guilty not eating my food because people actually in this situation do not get to waste their food. 

SNACKS - 21:00

Today I ate my last apple for a snack. Overall, I rationed my food perfectly this week. After eating this apple, I have no food left to eat (except for the dinner I did not eat). 

THOUGHTS

I went grocery shopping this morning because I have no groceries after doing this challenge. While grocery shopping I was much more aware of what I was buying and the prices attached to the products. In remembering that food prices have gone up in the past, I wanted to find out what the average family has to pay for groceries. Global News Canada (2019) states “the average Canadian family is expected to spend an additional $487 on food in 2020, a new report says.” (para. 1). In relation to the Welfare Food Challenge, this increase in food prices would be devastating for a welfare recipients. More specifically meat prices are supposed to rise 4-6%, vegetables are supposed to rise 2-4%, and fruit is supposed to rise 1.5-3.5% (Global News Canada, 2019). With these things being already fairly expensive, these rises in prices would force a welfare recipient to look to other foods. 

To check out the Global News Canada (2019) news story: https://globalnews.ca/news/6247908/canada-food-prices-2020/

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Day 6 - February 29th, 2020

Day six is over and I am happy to say I have one day left of the Welfare Food Challenge. Last night I had an awful sleep, I was up almost every hour and it took me a very long time to fall asleep afterwards. 

On top of this I woke up extremely hungry and I wondered if that had a connection to the lack of sleep I got. Therefore I did some research and found that the two hormones that control hunger are ghrelin, which stimulates appetite and leptin, which suppresses hunger (National Sleep Foundation, 2020). Furthermore, when the body is deprived of sleep the levels of ghrelin in the blood spike and the levels of leptin fall, causing increased hunger (National Sleep Foundation, 2020). Another interesting fact from the article is that the lipid, endocannabinoid, is secreted into the blood when there is a lack of sleep (National Sleep Foundation, 2020). Similar to marijuana, endocannabinoid gives an individual a better experience eating or in other words makes eating more enjoyable (National Sleep Foundation, 2020). 

BREAKFAST - 10:00

I apologize in advance for the rest of today’s posts because I was TERRIBLE at taking pictures of my meals today. However, today I had two scrambled eggs on two pieces of toast (because yes I broke both yolks). It was still a good breakfast but because I had a very restful Saturday, I was hungrier than usual. 

LUNCH - 13:00

(Again, very sorry about the pictures). Although I was hungry after breakfast, I did not have any snacks because, first of all I am out of granola bars, and second of all I only have apples left for a snack. With only an apple for a snack today, I did not want to leave myself without a snack after dinner. 

DINNER - 18:45

Today’s dinner was one of the best I have had in a while because as pictured below, there were lots of vegetables. It was the perfect meal to have before I did some yoga. Yoga was definitely a risk because I do not think I have had enough nutrients today. While I was doing yoga I felt great, it felt really good to get moving throughout the day. However, at the very end of my yoga session, I got extremely dizzy. I almost felt like I was going faint, which has never happened to me before. 

In further research I found that a lack of vitamin B12 can cause dizziness and feeling short of breath (Healthline, 2017). High levels of Vitamin B12 are found in beef and fish, but there are lower levels in poultry, eggs, and dairy (Healthline, 2017). Therefore, I think my lack of red meat and protein in general are what is causing me to feel so dizzy. 

SNACKS - 21:00

Tonight I had one of my apples for a late night snack as pictured below. I apologize for not having too much to say about my snacks, but they are getting very old as well. 

THOUGHTS

My main take away from today is that not consuming enough nutrients can really impact your body. I wonder how common nutrient deficiencies are in welfare recipients because they do not have enough money to buy a well balanced diet for a week. Furthermore, I cannot imagine being pregnant and having to live on this kind of diet. Especially in developing nations, people do not receive enough nutrients to begin with and pregnant women who are now feeding two it must be quite difficult. 

Overall, I cannot wait for my last day of the challenge tomorrow. However, I am not excited to go grocery shopping and pay more than $18. 

To view the National Sleep Foundation (2020) article: https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/connection-between-sleep-and-overeating

To look at the article about Vitamin B12 Deficiencies (2017): https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/vitamin-b12-deficiency-symptoms#section10

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Day 5 - February 28th, 2020

It is Friday today and I am super grateful for that. In doing this challenge, the week has gone by so slow for some reason. Today I only have one class early in the morning and then I have the rest of the day to relax or get ahead in some classes. However, I am not looking forward to class because each class we have a “motivator” that does something nice for the group each morning and it is quite common for the individual to bring some kind of snack or treat. Although it would be “free”, I do not feel like accepting a treat that early in the morning when I know I do not need it would be realistic to the challenge. 

BREAKFAST - 07:30

As you can see below, I finally succeeded in making my two over-easy eggs and they were perfect. Prior to the challenge, I never realized how many little things you use on a daily basis to cook that such as salt, pepper, oil or butter. Furthermore, if you were truly in this situation you would not want to spend your money on these items, when you need good, quality food to last you the week.

As I had predicted the motivator for the day brought both Tim Horton’s donuts and juice boxes for the group. I am not going to lie, I was very tempted to eat the donut and maybe I should have. However, I did not take the snacks because I think that it is not the point of the challenge (which was very hard, the donuts looked AMAZING).  

LUNCH - 12:00

My lunch today was alright, not because the food was not good, but because I am so tired of eating pasta. I am going to be honest, I did not even want to each lunch today because this food has become so unappetizing to me. Furthermore, it took me a lot long to finish this fairly small dish because I just had no interest in eating it. 

I did some more research on if eating the same food everyday impacted your life in any way. The webpage titled, The Pros and Cons of Eating the Same Thing Every Day from Woman & Home (2017) stated that eating the same thing every day can cause psychological habituation or boredom. The article states that Dr. Susan Roberts reported boredom tends to reduce calorie intake because having variety in the food you eat tends to make people want to consume more (Woman & Home, 2017). However, Dr. Mike Russell states that by consuming a wider variety of food allows more diversity in microflora in the stomach which can guard against the storage of stomach fat (Woman & Home, 2017). Dr. Russell continues on by stating those who include a wide variety of healthier food in their diet “are 21% less likely to develop metabolic syndrome, and tend to have smaller waists and lower blood sugar and blood pressure levels” (Woman & Home, 2017, para. 5). This data was quite interesting to read because you always hear about having a “balanced diet” but in some cases that may not be the case. 

SNACKS - 15:00

One thing I have been very grateful for this week is the fruit I bought. 

DINNER - 19:30

I am running out of things to say about my dinners. However, I have grown to really look forward to the vegetables. All I want to eat is healthy foods and I would LOVE a giant salad right now. It is quite interesting that I am craving healthy snacks when I usually crave snacks like chips or chocolate. While I did love the granola bars, I should have spend that money on more bananas or apples. 

THOUGHTS

I apologize for the shorter posts, but I am losing motivation to eat. I know that sounds weird, but because I am not interested in the food, I honestly do not want to eat it anymore. 

To view the article from Woman & Home (2017): https://www.womanandhome.com/health-and-wellbeing/eating-the-same-thing-every-day-206919/

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Day 4 - February 27th, 2020

TODAY I AM HALF WAY!!! If you cannot tell, I am excited today. Hitting the half way point today has given me another push to complete the challenge. So far I have not cheated. I have not accepted any free food or snacked on all of the good things in my pantry (which I think may be a form of torture). 

If you read my post yesterday, you know I had quite the day. I am glad to say that today is a million times better. I woke up this morning again feeling quite drowsy and still tired but I forced myself out of bed, had a cold glass of water and was ready to go. 

BREAKFAST - 08:30

Today, on my morning stroll through instagram I discovered that it is national toast day. This super irrelevant and small fact somehow made me a little more excited to eat my plain toast. 

LUNCH - 12:30

Today lunch gave me lots of energy and I finished lots of homework afterwards. I found the pasta for lunch was a really great choice because I fills be up for a bit and it is my meal that has the most flavour. Therefore, because it has more flavour, it is the meal I have been looking forward to the most. 

I had a banana with my lunch and I have found that if I mix in a fruit with my meals that I feel way better. I enjoy having more of a balance to my meals and including more food groups. 

DINNER - 18:30

Tonight, my dinner tasted a lot better than it has every other day strictly due to the fact that a stranger in the hallway told me it smelled good (I know, for once a new photo background). Honestly, having someone else say that my dinner smelled appetizing to them made me more excited to eat it in a way. 

SNACKS - 20:00

When I got home from class around 8 o’clock I needed a snack so I ate my granola bar and an apple as pictured below. 

THOUGHTS

I apologize that I do not have more to say about each meal but because I did not give myself the option to change my meals I am running out of both complaints and good things about them. However, today was a really good day for me and I got a ton of work done. This definitely proves my theory that the busier I am, the less I think about food. 

One big change I have noticed throughout the week and I mentioned it before but I have been drinking way more water than usual. Today I filled up my water bottle at least 7 times and it holds 710 mL. That means I drank almost 5 L in one day. In thinking how lucky I am to be able to have this drinking water I started to think about how I cooked all of my food for this week using water in some way. I used a pot of water to boil my pasta, to make my rice, and to steam my vegetables. If I did not have clean or safe water to use to make my food I would have been without two of my main meals. 

In thinking about how much water I used in just one day I did some more research regarding the water crisis around the world. The World Health Organization (2020) states that in 2017, 2.2 billion people do not have clean drinking water. Out of that 2.2 billion, 435 million people are using water from unprotected wells and springs and 114 million people collect their water from untreated lakes, ponds, rivers and streams (World Health Organization, 2020). Furthermore, in our Global Health class we discussed communicable or contagious diseases that are water-related. The diseases include, but definitely are not limited to Cholera, E. Coli, and Norovirus (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016). I use water so mindlessly everyday and I am not sure that I could make it through this challenge if I could not drink water. I cannot imagine having to worry every time I go to fill up my water bottle or use water to cook that I might get sick or some kind of disease. 

Today I also meal prepped my lunches and dinners for the last three days of the challenge and I have to say this half will be much better. I was so worried about not having enough food to finish that I actually made my meals for the first half way smaller than they needed to be. In fact instead of making the three pasta lunches I had planned on making, I had enough to fill five medium sized containers. My dinners are also larger than they were in the first half and have way more vegetables that I originally thought I was going to have. Overall, I think the next half of this challenge will be easier than the first half (knock on wood). 

To read the World Health Organization’s factsheet on drinking-water: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/drinking-water

To look at the CDC’s website about Water-Related Diseases: https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/disease/az.html

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Day 3 - February 26th, 2020

Day three got the best of me I will admit. I am not too sure whether it was the challenge or just an off day for me (maybe a combination of both) but I was just not feeling like myself today. At 5 o’clock in the morning I got a text from my clinical instructor saying that my clinical was cancelled because she was sick, which at first I saw as a blessing. I had a day to relax and catch up on a bunch of things. However, I was looking forward to clinical and being able to keep myself busy as I had did yesterday. 

As any rational person would do at 5 o’clock in the morning I went back to sleep for a couple of hours and thought I would wake up feeling rested and ready to start my day. However, I am sure you could guess that this was not the case. I honestly had no motivation to get out of bed and I fell so groggy all day long. Not only was I having a rough morning but tomorrow I also have a safe medication calculation exam and if I do not get above 90%, I fail. This added stress on top of everything else set me up for one of the longest and hardest days I have had in a while.  

BREAKFAST - 09:30

Breakfast this morning was tough for me because I as I mentioned above I just was not in a great head space today. I made two eggs with two pieces of toast for breakfast and broke, yet again, another yolk. I could tell it was going to be a rough day when breaking the yolk to one of my eggs almost made me cry. My ability to regulate my emotions seemed to be completely out the window. Throughout the rest of the day my mood was flat, so flat my even my roommates noticed and kept asking me if I was okay throughout the day. To be honest it was really frustrating to be in such a weird mood and have no idea why or how to explain to others how you are feeling. 

After breakfast I tried to sit down and start practicing medication calculations for my test and I caught myself several times staring into to blank space or just completely zoning out. I had no concept of time and what I thought had been hours of studying had only been 45 minutes. I was so frustrated and confused about why I could not snap out of this funk. One of the hardest parts of this challenge is that I am not even hungry lots of the time but I am just so drained from the stress about worrying if I have enough food and if I am able to have a snack.

LUNCH - 13:00

Lunch rolled around at about 1 o’clock and I was hoping that this meal would help me out of my odd mood. However, it honestly almost made it worse. I was so tired after this that I had to lay down and have a nap, even though I got to sleep in this morning. After about an hour long nap I woke up and tried to start studying again, this time being a little more successful than the last attempt. 

At this point in my day I thought to myself that maybe a piece of fruit might help and I decided to eat one of my last bananas (I forgot to take a picture, but cut me some slack, I had a rough day). Honestly, the fruit helped a bit and it gave me a little more energy to actually have some decent study time. After about an hour or so of studying my boyfriend came over so I took a little break. He gave me one hug and I am not kidding when I say that I balled my eyes out for about half an hour. He was confused, I was confused and to be honest I could not tell you why I was crying. I think I was just so emotionally and mentally drained that I had a mini breakdown. Worried, he offered to go buy me some snacks or a healthy meal to eat to hopefully make me feel a bit better. However, the thought of cheating and not completing the challenge completely snapped me out of my mood and I was ready to stop feeling sorry for myself. 

DINNER - 19:00

I swear, if my roommates jokingly ask me what I am having for dinner one more time, I may lose my mind a bit. I get it is a joke and that they are trying to make light of my situation but I am already sick of having the same meal everyday and them making jokes hit a nerve today. I am going to blame this on my bad day, but every little thing today made me get irrationally emotional. This challenge is kicking my butt. 

Today, I had my pre-made rice and vegetables for dinner again. However, not having to cook or decide what to make all week has been nice but I still wish I had more variety. I want to be able to switch up my meals for the second half of the challenge so that I am less tired of eating the same thing but I know that rice and tomato sauce or pasta and vegetables will be much worse. However, on a better note I am actually feeling quite full after my meals and find myself only wanting more snacks when I am relaxing. 

SNACKS - 21:00

After such an emotional roller coaster today I decided i could have a little treat. Actually, correction, a fairly big treat. I did not take a picture of it but I actually ate six of my “dinosours” and 4 pieces of my Kit Kat (half of the whole chocolate bar). Oh, and on top of that I also ate the granola bar pictured below. I will admit I went a little crazy and I definitely did not need to eat all of that but I went to be in such a better mood. 

THOUGHTS

Looking back on my day, it is quite ridiculous to think that I thought I had a hard day when I had three full meals, a few snacks, and some treats because some people in the world do not have that option. I feel guilty for feeling sorry for myself because I have the option to eat more food should I choose too, when in reality people do not. When they get hungry, they stay hungry and that breaks my heart. There is an estimated 815 million people in the world (that is 10.7%) that were suffering from undernourishment in 2016 (World Hunger, 2018). Those numbers really put into perspective how little my issues are. 

To clarify, I am not a crier, I do not cry often and I definitely would not usually cry over breaking an egg yolk. In hopes to find a reason for my crazy, emotional day, I did some research on how hunger effects an individual emotions. I found a website that summarizes an article from the Journal of Biological Psychiatry and it displayed that serotonin levels, which are partially responsible for regulating mood and behaviour, fluctuates when an individual has not eaten or becomes stressed out (Dallas, 2011). This made me feel a little less guilty for being so emotional and tired throughout my day because I had no eaten what my body is used to and I was extremely stressed out. 

I apologize for the shorter post today, but as I write this I am still feeling quite down and I am going to try to get a good nights sleep tonight. Hopefully day 4 is nicer to me, than day 3. 

To look at the website Research Reveals Why Hungry People Get Cranky: https://www.everydayhealth.com/emotional-health/0916/research-reveals-why-hungry-people-get-cranky.aspx

To look at the World Hunger website: https://www.worldhunger.org/world-hunger-and-poverty-facts-and-statistics/ 

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Day 2 - February 25th, 2020

Today I have a very busy day ahead of me as I have clinical from 6:30-2:30 and then will have lots of research to do when I get home. Keep reading to see how day two of seven turned out for me!

BREAKFAST - 05:30

I woke up today not super hungry which was kind of surprising but I was up at the crack of dawn and I ate dinner fairly later last night so that may be why. This morning for breakfast I decided to go rogue and make two eggs with two pieces of toast. My reasoning for this was that I read an article that stated “extra protein at breakfast helps control hunger” and I wanted to test it out for myself (Harvard Health Publishing Harvard Medical School, 2018, para. 1). The science behind this fact is that protein takes longer for your body to digest than carbohydrates or fats and therefore can suppress your hunger for longer periods of time (Harvard Health Publishing Harvard Medical School, 2018). I also wanted to test this out because I was very nervous that by walking around all day at clinical that I would burn most of the calories I was consuming, therefore making me hungrier. 

Looking at the picture below you may be wondering why I have one scrambled egg and one over-easy or fried egg. The reason for that is again when you have no butter eggs are virtually impossible to flip without breaking the yolk. With that said 1/2 eggs isn’t terrible (maybe tomorrow will be better).

Overall, adding more protein to my breakfast did in fact keep me full for a longer time. This is quite impressive to me because as I mentioned above I had clinical today and I was right, I ended up running around with my head cut off from 7 to at least 11:30. By 11:30 I was thankful for the larger breakfast I ate because I needed a little pick me up. 

I will admit I am struggling without my morning coffee. I am not sure whether or not I actually need it or if it is just a placebo for me but I was definitely slower moving this morning than usual. I was yawning for about an hour into clinical which is quite unusual for me, once I get on the unit it is usually game on and I focus into what I am doing. It was quite hard to shake the fact that I was tired today. 

LUNCH - 11:30

Today I had an earlier lunch than I would have liked but this was the first time that I got a break and got to leave the unit. Not going to lie, when eating lunch I was not as hungry as I thought I would have been so I only ate my pasta and my banana during my first break which I felt really good about. I can honestly say that the busier I am, the less I think about food. On top of that, I could definitely see that having two eggs in the morning really did fill me up for longer.

When I got back from my first break the unit settled down a bit and I less busy. Due to this I started to think about food just a little bit more than I was before just because I was just sitting and waiting around for something to do. Therefore, by 2 o’clock I got my second break and was definitely ready to eat my other snacks. I ate my apple and my granola bar which tasted way better than they actually do because I was hungry. 

DINNER - 19:30

Dinner today was a late one because once I got home from the hospital I had tons of research to do about my new patient for tomorrow. Again, because I was so busy and focused I was less hungry. I did not even notice that it was 7 until my roommates asked if I was going to eat. It was crazy to me how I had been so focused on food the day before and today I was almost forgetting to eat. 

“DESSERT” - 21:00

Before bed today I decided to have a little treat for myself strictly because my roommates were all eating their junk food and I just wanted to participate (sad, I know). Tuesday’s in our house are “Bachelor nights” and usually we have snacks all around the table. I am not going to lie, watching my boyfriend eat an entire bag of fuzzy peaches beside me made me angry (way angrier than it should have, that is for sure). I am going to go out on a limb and say my sugar withdrawal is in full kick. However, this may be a good thing for me to lay off the sweets and junk food for a while. 

THOUGHTS

One thing that I tried today was eating slower because I had always heard from dieting books or magazines that if you eat slower you feel fuller faster and therefore eat less food. In trying this today I can say I honestly did not notice a difference and I think this is because I do not have very large portions for my meals. In doing some more research on the topic I found that in order to feel satisfied after eating your stomach should be full but your brain has to receive singles from hormones secreted by your digestive tract to say that it is full (Harvard Health Publishing Harvard Medical School, 2019).

This website was also able to verify my theory from yesterday that drinking more water made me feel fuller even though I wasn’t eating any more calories. The author states that “stretch receptors in the stomach are activated as it fills with food or water; these signal the brain directly through the vagus nerve...” (Harvard Health Publishing Harvard Medical School, 2019, para. 3). 

To read the article Extra Protein at Breakfast Helps Control Hunger from Harvard Health Publishing Harvard Medical School (2018): https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/extra-protein-at-breakfast-helps-control-hunger 

To read the article Why Eating Slowly May Help You Feel Full Faster by Harvard Health Publishing Harvard Medical School (2019): https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/why-eating-slowly-may-help-you-feel-full-faster-20101019605

[shelbeymurphy-blog]

Day 1 - February 24th, 2020

Hello again! Today I started my Welfare Food Challenge and to be totally candid, I am struggling. I woke up today with a pounding headache, but I stayed true to the challenge all day (no cheating, I pinky promise, which is a very serious form of committment to me). 

Disclaimer: All the pictures below are completely unedited as I wanted to let any readers see exactly what I was consuming in order to remain somewhat credible and realistic. 

BREAKFAST - 08:30

This morning I woke up fairly hungry and was ready for my usual coffee, some fruit, a bagel, maybe even some avocado on top with an egg for some protein. I am a firm believer that breakfast is in fact the most important meal of the day. However, from the picture below you can already see I had a significantly smaller breakfast than I was used to. While I would not consider this a terrible breakfast, my first meal of the day was super dry. I had two pieces of toast and one scrambled egg on top. Prior to this morning my strategy was to make an over-easy egg and use the runny yolk as a ‘sauce’ to make my breakfast a little less dry. However, I quickly learned that without butter or oil on a pan it is very difficult to flip an egg without completely destroying it (now that may be the real challenge of the week). 

As mentioned before, I love to have a larger breakfast to make sure that I hit all of my food groups and that I am ready to start my day. This was definitely something I was missing this morning. I found myself getting pretty hungry by about 10:30 and sadly had a midterm at 11:00. Do not get me wrong, I still did well on my exam, but I found myself quite distracted by the fact that I was hungry. I was very shocked to see how this challenge already started to impact my life. 

In realizing that something as simple as eating a smaller breakfast has already impacted my ability to focus and learn, I did some more research. The American Physiological Association (2016) state in the online document What are the Psychological Affects of Hunger on Children that hunger can cause toxic stress because you body is not being relieved of this stressful state it is in. Furthermore, when people are hungry they tend to spend what limited mental reserves they have focusing on food or ways to satisfy their needs (American Psychological Association, 2016). Reading this made me truly realize that this challenge may actually impact my schoolwork because just in one day I was already focused on my hunger. I know, I am eating three fairly decent meals and that I should be grateful and I am. However, it has been a big shift on my body to lack those fruits and vegetables or healthier foods that give my power the nutrients it needs for the day. 

LUNCH - 12:30

As lunch rolled around, I was unusually hungry. I blame this on the fact that I am a snacker; I pack tons of snacks with me to class like granola bars, apples, vegetables, and sometimes the odd Rice Krispie square. Without these I was definitely ready for my next meal by lunch time, which was about a cup and half of pasta with some tomato sauce. I will admit, this was a fairly decent lunch and satisfied my hunger for quite a while but I found myself missing some vegetables. Over the years I have grown to really enjoy my salads and even look forward to them (I know its weird, I like vegetables okay). I am not sure how but just in one day I could really feel the difference in my body without getting my daily vegetables and eating more carbohydrates that I am used to. This was evidenced by just after lunch I was extremely tired and ready to curl up in bed and have a nap. Furthermore, the headache I woke up with in the morning was still pounding, even though I had taken my usual Tylenol migraine. I cannot help but wonder if I had been giving my body the nutrients it is used to through more vegetables and fruit if my headache would have gone away quicker. 

SNACKS - 14:30

As mentioned above, I am a snacker. I am not sure if I could have made it between meals today without my banana and granola bar. I ate both of these a couple hours after my lunch, which I immediately regretted because I had the fear that I would need one of them as a snack later in the evening (which spoiler alert, I was 100% correct about). 

DINNER - 19:00

Today’s final meal was the smallest dinners I have had in a very long time. When buying my rice and frozen vegetables yesterday I was quite confident that I would have enough to last me the entire week and that it would make seven decent sized meals. However, after meal prepping these dinners I was to quick to see that I was wrong. It was very hard to see that I may not have large enough dinners to keep me full throughout the night and it breaks my heart realizing people live like this on a daily basis.

Not only was my dinner small it was also one of the blandest meals I have had to date. I have never been a big user of salt and pepper, but today I was really missing some flavour. It is a hard realization to find all of the things I use daily that I take for granted. When I make my food it never crosses my mind that people across the world do not get to have meals that are healthy and give them their daily nutrients because I have become so accustomed to my lifestyle. Reflecting on my daily choices, I feel selfish for not being grateful that I get to have food that I enjoy everyday.

“DESSERT”

Pictured below was my ‘dessert’ if you will. It may not seem like much but after a long day of studying and stress these two small candies seemed like heaven. While I did indulge in my candies and it brought me great happiness, I cannot help but wonder if I should have saved this money and bought more healthy snacks or even more vegetables to have with my main meals. I felt almost guilty for enjoying this snack because I know in my head that it is unrealistic. To further explain, if I was actually in this situation and only had $18 for seven days worth of groceries I would have never bought these candies because I would need to buy quality food. Again, I feel quite selfish for buying them right now as I feel like it was something I wanted and not something I needed. Already I am starting to question my daily choices when I buy treats for myself that i just want because it is more clear to me than ever that some people do not have that luxury. 

THOUGHTS

While today was a success because I got through the day without ‘cheating’, which was my main goal, as I write this post just before I go to bed, I am hungry. I am struggling between eating one of my apples right now so that I do not go to bed hungry and knowing that if I do I will have to go without a snack in one of the days to come. This personal battle I am having with myself has been a recurring theme throughout the day. I found myself beating myself up for eating my snacks when I was hungry because I wanted to make sure I can last the whole week. To be completely honest, it is exhausting to constantly have to worry about having enough food to last me the week. In reality it has only been a day, but it was one of the longest days I have had in a while and I cannot imagine living like this for months on end. My eyes have truly been opened already and I am very interested to see where this week takes me.

One big change that I noticed today was that I drank way more water that I am used to. I think it was my way of tricking my body into thinking I was consuming more than I actually was. Throughout my normal days I usually mix in a juice of some kind or maybe even an iced tea, but today that did not even cross my mind. In doing some research I found that the Health Eating Requirements (2019) state that water is “the beverage of choice to support health and promote hydration without adding calories to the diet.” This was interesting because even though I was not consuming any more calories, I still felt a little fuller while I drank my water. 

My main takeaway from my first day of the challenge is that protein is a very important key nutrient that I was missing. When buying groceries I thought it was important to have at least one source of protein which is my eggs for breakfast. However, I made a mistake thinking that this would be enough. One of the first headings on the Canada’s Food Guide directly states “eat protein foods” and directly on the website there is a visual showing that some form of protein should take up a quarter of your plate or bowl each meal (Government of Canada, 2019). To think, that two out of my three meals did not have a form of protein at all scares me a little bit. I am going to infer that this will be the reason I struggle with this challenge throughout the week.

When looking at the old Recommended Number of Food Guide Servings Per Day (2007) I definitely did not meet the daily serving requirements of any of the main food groups. Keeping in mind this data may be out of date, but the newer version does not have a serving guide that I could find. However, I had 0/2 servings of milk or alternatives, 0.5/2 servings of meat and alternatives, 3/6-7 servings of grain products, and 2/7-8 servings of vegetables and fruit. This was quite terrifying for me to see because if you had to live like this for an extended period of time there may be some very serious health issues that arise such as nutrient deficiencies. 

To look at the document What are the Psychological Effects of Hunger on Children: https://www.apa.org/advocacy/socioeconomic-status/hunger.pdf

To view the Government of Canada website and the 2019 Healthy Eating Guidelines: https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/

To visit the Recommended Number of Food Guide Servings Per Day (2007): https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/hc-sc/migration/hc-sc/fn-an/alt_formats/fnihb-dgspni/pdf/pubs/fnim-pnim/2007_fnim-pnim_food-guide-aliment-eng.pdf

[shelbeymurphy-blog]

Preparation - February 23rd, 2020

INTRODUCTION

Hi everyone! My name is Shelbey and I am a second year nursing student who has chosen to participate in this challenge as an assignment for a Global Health course. I have chosen to participate in this challenge because growing up I never had to worry about food insecurity and therefore I am excited (as excited as I can be) to put myself in someone else's shoes for a week.

The Welfare Food Challenge is meant to raise the public awareness of the poverty and food insecurity of those who are on welfare. This organization challenges people to buy groceries for one full week (7 days) using only the money that a welfare recipient would have (Welfare Food Challenge, 2017). The most recent challenge occurred in 2017, and it stated the average budget for food of a welfare recipient is only $18 and this is what I will be documenting throughout the week (Welfare Food Challenge, 2017). On top of this already difficult task, there are some rules: you cannot use food banks, accept food from friends or family, or use any food you already have at home (Welfare Food Challenge, 2017).

I grew up on small farm in central rural Alberta, with my parents, my older sister, and our two dogs. Coming from a middle class family, growing up I never worried about where my next meal was coming from or if my family had enough money to feed our pets. My parents always gave my sister and I what we needed to be healthy and happy. In highschool I was also playing competitive field hockey for team Alberta which taught me the value of eating healthy in order to have your body and mind performing their best. Along the same line, growing up I also suffered from migraines when I was dehydrated, hungry or even when the weather changed significantly. Due to this, my whole life my mother has drilled into me the importance of drinking and eating enough to keep myself from getting sick.

PREPARATION

Deciding when to do this challenge was a big struggle for me because as a nursing student we have a clinical practicum twice a week and it is important to be physically and mentally fit to practice. I came to the conclusion that this week will be the best time for me to participate as I am on a new unit and get two “buddy shifts” for orientation. Therefore, I will not have to take my own patient this week, which is probably for the best (no one wants a hungry nurse). 

When going to the grocery store I had not planned what I wanted to buy, which was probably to blame for the hour and a half I spent wandering around Superstore trying to find what I wanted. I personally have never spent so much time in a grocery store, nor have I ever spent so much time looking at prices and calculating if I had enough money to buy it. Buying groceries has never been so stressful for me because I am lucky enough to be able to ignore the prices of many of my favourite things. However, this time I almost gave myself a headache putting things back on the shelves, walking around the entire store and then walking back twenty minutes later to pick up the exact same thing. Before today, I have never noticed all of the things that I buy just from habit that are right next to "no name" brands of the exact same product that are so much cheaper.

In our Global Health class we once talked about gender equality and we discussed how in developing nations women are still generally expected to take care of the home and the children. Today this really resonated with me as I was buying groceries because I found it hard enough to buy food for myself, I cannot imagine having to find food for my entire family. To further explain, we were all children once and I am willing to bet there was at least one time you went grocery shopping with your parents and you wanted a box of cookies or a treat for yourself and they said no. I cannot imagine having to explain to a child that we simply do not have enough money to buy treats because we have to buy food that will keep us full. 

The picture below shows my weeks worth of groceries that came to the total of $17.62. My thought process while buying these groceries was to go by meal. By that I mean, I settled on eggs and toast for breakfast, pasta with tomato sauce for lunches, and rice with vegetables for dinners. While this may seem like it could become boring, I was going for foods that will make me feel fuller, especially on clinical days, where I will be at the hospital at 6:30 a.m. I also bought apples, bananas, and granola bars to keep me going between meals, because I love to have snacks.

The picture below displays my receipts proving that I did stay under the $18 limit. There are two receipts because after ringing through all the necessities for the week I realized I had another dollar to spend and you bet I was going to spend every dollar possible. Therefore, I spent my money very wisely on the Kit Kat you see above. I also decided to treat myself with 7 "dinosours", one for everyday of the challenge. Yes, I know it seems quite silly to buy a Kit Kat and some candy, but knowing myself and my massive sweet tooth I know that if I did not treat myself at least a little bit I might go slightly crazy. Also, while this may sounds weird, should I get a migraine (knock on wood) sometimes something sweet like chocolate helps it go away a little quicker. While this probably just is a placebo for me, I wanted to be prepared for the worst. 

As the receipt may be hard to read, here is what I purchased:

Quaker Dips Granola Bars (5) - $1.88

Penne - $1.28

Pasta Sauce - $1.28

Jasmine Rice - $2.78

Large Eggs (12) - $2.98

Frozen Vegetables - $2.28

Bananas (4) - $0.89

Apples (5) - $1.74

French Bread - $0.95

DinoSours (12) - $0.52

KitKat - $0.88

THOUGHTS

I am not going to lie, I am quite scared about this week, especially with 8 hour clinical days ahead of me. Once I got back from the grocery store I did some meal prepping for the first four days of this challenge and I have to say it does not look like enough food for me. I know how not eating properly can impact not only the physical abilities of people but also their mental capacity. While I think I have a difficult week ahead of me, I am very excited to experience the food insecurity issues that are happening in our country everyday and I am very determined to get through the week without 'cheating'.

Stay tuned on my progress!

For more information about the Welfare Food Challenge (2017): https://welfarefoodchallenge.org/2017challenge/